[News] An Open Letter from Guam to America

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://bostonreview.net/war-security/victoria-lola-m-leon-guerrero-open-letter-guam-america#.WY8Rvb1eveI.facebook 



  An Open Letter from Guam to America

Victoria-Lola M. Leon Guerrero
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aug 11, 2017

On becoming the collateral damage of American warmongering.

Dear America,

I am glad that you are finally paying attention to what is happening in 
Guam. Many of you, as I am reading online, are asking for the first 
time, “What is Guam?” Every day growing up here, we have been told all 
about you. I am sorry that it is only when we are the subject of bombs 
that you even attempt to say the word Guam; there are so many more 
interesting things I wish you would want to know about us. We, on the 
other hand, are not as surprised by the latest bomb threat. We are quite 
used to hearing Guam and bomb in the same sentence. Every month or so, 
when another missile is tested, or rhetoric fired, we hear how North 
Korea, or China, or Russia could bomb Guam. I have even saved pictures 
of China's infamous “Guam Killer” bombs on my computer so our 
Independence group can use it in Independence 101 presentations as an 
example of why we need to get free NOW. Yes, there are people in Guam 
who want independence from you. But there are also people in Guam who 
hear these threats of bombs and cower to the hype. They start to believe 
that we need your mighty military bases and beg for more, because then 
we would not be bombed, right? But you have been the source of all our 
bomb problems.

The worst bombs that have ever been dropped on Guam were yours near the 
end of World War II. At the beginning of the war, you left us 
defenseless to the Japanese, knowing full well that they were planning 
to invade Guam all along. You safely boarded your white military wives 
on ships and sent them home months before the attack, but did nothing to 
protect us. That's right, the last time an invading nation that you said 
you would protect us from attacked, you surrendered in 2 days and left 
20,000 people to suffer, many falling victim to the most atrocious of 
war crimes. But we are strong and we survived not just that ugly war but 
also the losses that came after. When you returned in 1944, you leveled 
our island with your bombs, leaving most families without a home to 
return to. We were scattered and displaced so you could build your 
enormous bases. And we were so grateful to you that our people served 
and continue to serve your military and die for your freedom in higher 
numbers per capita than you.

The worst bombs that have ever been dropped on Guam were yours.

Today you occupy nearly one-third of our island, and station bombers and 
nuclear powered submarines here to flex your might to our neighbors. You 
play endless war games emitting fumes and dumping waste into our air, 
water, soil, bodies. We breathe in the fallout when you test your bombs 
on our sister islands upwind—those clouds make their way down here. We 
eat fish from the waters you bomb around us. Grieve the beached whales 
who rot at the shore, led astray by your sonar testing. We are being 
made to sacrifice—with no consent (and for many of us, against our 
will)—access to sacred ancient villages and a thousand acres of a lush 
limestone forest habitat that you want to destroy to build a firing 
range for your Marines. You fly bombers over my home at ungodly hours. 
Come on, America, I am raising babies here. Little ones, who notice when 
your flag is flown above theirs, and don't like it. Who hide under the 
slide at their playground and tell their friends to duck when your 
blaring B-1s, B-2s, be everything in their safe zone. There is a sign on 
the road that reads, “Slow down, children at play.”

Will you please slow down and allow my children to play? I want them to 
grow up here. This is their/my/my mama's mama's mama's homeland. There 
is no other place in the world I want them to be. I understand that for 
many “Americans,” you had to flee your homeland. That America became 
your better life, or at least the promise of it. That many of you long 
for your homeland and can't return. And sadly, many of you don't think 
enough about the indigenous Americans whose lands and lives were stolen 
to manifest this destiny. But this land, this beautiful island everyone 
wants to bomb because of you, is my land, not yours. And I don't want to 
flee. I left my land once for your college education. But I ached for 
home the entire time. As soon as I got my degrees, I came back to use 
them here. My home is my better life. I am nourished by my land, where 
my family grows our own food. I am raising bright babies, with the 
jungle as their backyard, and this is the life my ancestors wanted for 
me and for them. I want to go to sleep peacefully knowing that my family 
is safe in our home. So please, stop all this bomb talk. And instead, 
ask yourself why Guam is still your colony in 2017.

Good night and good morning,
Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero
1:40 a.m. August 10, 2017
Yo'ña, Guåhan(Guam)

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20170812/e1a215f7/attachment.htm>